How to Write A Script for A Short Marketing Video

If you’re thinking about producing a brief marketing video, you can’t skip on developing a highly persuasive, engaging and interesting script. It’s a critical step if you want to get to a high-end, enticing video! Of course, to get to an effective script, you need to follow some important guidelines. And guess what? We have compiled them all in this blog post! Keep on reading and learn how to write a script for a short marketing video!

Marketing Video Script: Getting The Basics

Let’s review some basic concepts first – What is a marketing video script? It’s the message you deliver in your video, what the voice-over says. As we outlined in the introduction, it’s one of the most important phases during the video production process, as it sets the foundation for the entire video.

It’s important to look for a good balance between the form and content: the form relates to the camera angles, animations, images, soundtrack and other elements of the video. The content is, basically, the script, which has to be highly engaging. To get to this point, keep this in mind: the main goal of the script is to explain how your product or service can assess your target audience’s problems. It’s not about your brand, or about selling the great features of your product. It’s about meeting your customer’s needs and expectations.

Before we move forward, take a few minutes to download an example of an animated video script to keep as a reference.

5 Key Considerations On How To Write A Script For A Short Marketing Video

We have summarized some of the most important considerations you should bear in mind when writing down a marketing video script. BUT, if you want to get the full information, feel free to download our free eBook on “How to write a script for an explainer video”. Here we go!

#1. Your target audience

Your target audience will become your guiding light throughout the whole process so make sure you know them deeply from within. Not only do you have to know them from head to toe: your video has to be focused on them so as to generate a strong connection towards what is being shown on screen. Results? You will boost engagement…and views! So, try to have a clear answer to these questions:

What style do they have?

How old are they?

Where do they live?

What places do they visit?

What’s their job?

How do they look and dress?

Any other data that might be helpful to define them.

All this information will enable you to customize the script according to their characteristics and expectations. So, take all the time you need to craft your buyer persona. This is a key instance that will help you: first, craft the characters in the upcoming step of the video production process (when making the storyboard). Additionally, you will provide them with a specific personality and mood. And, more importantly, you will generate that vital empathy we mentioned before: if the viewers feel represented by those characters on screen, you will boost trust and empathy towards your brand. This will end up raising your conversions and sales. Fantastic!

#2. The structure

When writing your marketing video script, always try to stick to the classical narrative structure: give it a beginning, a middle and an end. This logic will help you make the story more coherent, understandable and ultimately…memorable. Following this structure will also make it easier for you to compose it.

In video production, these 3 typical “acts” are named differently: we call them the what, the how and the why.

Act #1. The What

First thing you have to do is to tell your audience what you can do for them – in other words, what specific problem your product solves. This way you will quickly grab their interest and attention and keep it all the way through. Remember: focus on your target audience’s problems – do not talk about your brand yet.

In this video you can see how we’ve made this happen:

Act #2. The How

Now that you’ve presented the problem, it´s time to explain how your product can help them make their lives easier. Typically, this “act” starts when the brand is mentioned or the logo appears on the screen.

Act #3. The Why

This is the most salesy part of the video: your big chance to win a place in their hearts and minds. It’s the time to tell them why you’re the best alternative in your niche, if compared to competitors. So focus on describing the advantages of your product.

Watch this video and try to identify the 3 key “acts”:

#3. The Length

Video length and engagement are totally related. Consider that you need enough time to pass out your key messages while you also keep your audience’s attention. One thing’s for sure: under 2 minutes you will be ok (we can say that the optimal length for animated marketing videos is 90 seconds on average).

So, how long should your script be to meet these standards? Based on our experience, we can say that 160 written words equals one minute of video. So if your idea is to make a 90-second video, 240 written words will be the perfect number. Piece of cake!

#4. The Simplicity

Did you know that attention spans have decreased to only 8 seconds? Amazing, right? This means you have to keep your script simple, concise and straightforward. Do not aim to explain everything in one single video that lasts 90 seconds. Just pick out the essential information you want to communicate and leave the rest aside. Consider that, after the video is done, you will have the chance to complement that information with other marketing initiatives (sales calls, content marketing, email campaigns, etc.)

See how compelling and straightforward we’ve been with this video:

#5. The Call To Action

It’s very important that you include a strong Call To Action at the end of your video so as to guide your viewers in the direction you want (downloading a material, filling out a form, subscribing to an email list, or anything else). The Call To Action has to be simple, concise and attractive – it has to be really easy for them to understand what you want them to do! Piece of advice: include one single CTA per video – if you need more, you can replicate the original video and add a different CTA to each new video. That’s the best strategy!

Bonus Track

Let me give you some additional considerations on how to write a script for a short marketing video.

The tone: make sure you pick out the tone of your video according to your target audience, so that they feel identificated with it. Consider details such as a custom narrator, the cast, the pace, and any other element that plays a key role in making the video engaging and memorable.

The humor: you can also consider adding a dose of humor if it fits with your story. It will make your video even more fun and interesting to watch! Just don’t force it…if humor is not a good choice for your specific case, forget about it.

The benefits: in this type of marketing video, it’s always better to talk about benefits rather than features. This way you will avoid being too salesy (which is a must in explainer video production) while you also focus on your target audience’s problems. Try to express tangible and concrete benefits that your prospects would experiment if they have purchased the product.

Obviously, you can start working on your marketing script to get a first draft of it. but it’s always a good idea to assign this task to a professional explainer video production company, which will certainly have all the experience, skills and technology that this type of video demands. At Yum Yum, we always focus on making custom explainer video scripts for our clients – this means we fully adapt the script to the marketing goals they have, the target audience they want to approach and the type of product/service they offer, so as to make the video highly effective. If you need some help with producing yours, feel free to drop us a line and we’ll be glad to guide you throughout the process.

In Summary

Today you’ve learned that the script is one of the most important parts of the video production process, as it sets the foundation for the rest of the stages. What’s more important: you’ve got all the needed information on how to write a script for a short marketing video, so as to make it highly persuasive, entertaining and memorable. Hope you’ve found these tips useful and let us know how it all went! Stay tuned to our blog for more valuable information on video marketing!